Abstract
Ph.D. (Chemistry)
This study discusses the preparation of various sized dendrimer encapsulated ruthenium
nanoparticles (RuDEN) with the use of the generation 4 (G4), generation 5 (G5) and generation 6 (G6) hydroxyl-terminated poly(amidoamine) (PAMAM-OH) dendrimers as templating agents. The size of the nanoparticles ranges from 1.1-2.2 nm. The RuDENs were used as nanoparticle solutions in catalytic reactions or immobilised on amorphous silica 60 and silica 100 and subsequently referred to as RuSil catalysts. These catalysts were evaluated in the reduction of 4-nitrophenol, toluene hydrogenation, citral hydrogenation, cinnamaldehyde hydrogenation and styrene oxidation...